Originally Posted by
JamesAA
The boneyards in our SW deserts are home to planes still in use: F/A-18s, 737s, etc. Why did some of these types of aircraft have the unfortunate fate of ending up in the boneyards?
I could only speculate that perhaps the metal fatigue was an issue. Possibly too many T/O and Landings?
Another reason I thought was that particular airlines or the military were scaling back on a type of aircraft, thus having more, say F/A-18s than they need?
I'm curious as to know why.
Thanks in advanced
Airplanes aren't much different than cars (or boats!) in that regard. They get old, they start breaking down, it becomes too expensive to fix them, and harder to find parts. It's just cheaper to buy a new one (and get new, more efficient engines/wings) and then write off the depreciation if you are running a for profit business such as an airline.
The military has other reasons for parking their 'old' airplanes (F18/14's), such as future budget funding, drones replacing fighters/bombers, etc.
The 757 is probably one of the best airline type airplanes ever built, but even those are being parked now, and Boeing shut down the production line, because the customers were buying the 'old' 737's, stretched to infinity and beyond, to save fuel and mx costs!
Delta flew DC9's from the 1960's for many years past what anyone thought they should go, but even they finally parked them a few years ago.